Mark Bittman
March 3, 2009 Nailing * book: "Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating with More Than 75 Recipes" *has written a guide to conscious eating, Dr. Colbert asks why he doesn't write one on conscious breathing? * his book implies that Dr. Colbert could be eating while unconscious * before getting into bed, Dr. Colbert likes to dip a little bit of bacon, so that he can have the flavor while he's sleeping ** just a pinch between his cheek and gum and he can enjoy the full bacon flavor without lighting up * Bittman says people eat without thinking ** Dr. Colbert reminds him that we're so good at it, it's natural * Bittman says that there is twice as much food as we need to sustain ourselves in the U.S. ** he claims that Americans feel compelled to eat all of it * he describes the way Americans eat as: ** we eat without thinking about what's good for ourselves ** we eat without thinking about what's good for our planet * Dr. Colbert is conscious of one thing regarding his eating: ** he likes to eat things that were once conscious ** he would dig into a head of broccoli, but only if it could cry * Bittman says while writing his book, he changed his diet 60-70% (not completely) * he claims of the three pounds of food that every American eats every: ** about one half a pound of it is meat ** and a pound and a half of it is other animal products ** the remainder is mostly processed food or junk food * he says he is a vegan until 6 p.m. ** after that, anything goes ** may only be true for food * Bittman claimed that serving a family of four a steak dinner uses the same amount of energy as having that family drive around in an SUV for three hours while every light is on in their house ** Dr. Colbert wondered if the family was cooking the steak in petroleum ** and if he could do both because he likes to eat while he drives *** Bittman conceded that driving a Prius and eating a steak dinner might be possible * Bittman says that the UN says that 1/6th to 1/5th of all greenhouse gases come from industrial livestock production (or Robot Cows) ** America turns out 10 billion widget-cows every year (which comes to approximately 30 animals per person per year) * eating three fewer cheeseburgers every week would be equivalent to taking all the SUVs off the road ** because Americans would finally be skinny enough to fit back into regular-sized cars * the book does not have a chart to show what is equivalent to a cheeseburger * we could be healthier * help the environment * reduce global warming * Bittman was unable to tell Dr. Colbert what the one thing he should eat would be, so they decided to discuss it next time